


A Mother's Love

by TheWorkoftheHeart



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Child Death, Child Loss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Empty Nest Syndrome, Gen, Loss, Mother-Son Relationship, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27098389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWorkoftheHeart/pseuds/TheWorkoftheHeart
Summary: Becoming a mother was never something that Dadan had planned to do when she settled into the mountains of Mount Corvo.
Relationships: Dadan & Monkey D. Luffy, Dadan & Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Dadan & Portgas D. Ace, Dadan & Sabo (One Piece)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	A Mother's Love

Becoming a mother was never something that Dadan had planned to do when she settled into the mountains of Mount Corvo. She was a woman dedicated to her goals and dreams, and settling down meant putting them all aside to raise someone of her own, or to entirely entrust her values into the mind of someone too young to view the world any different. No, Dadan didn’t perceive herself fit to be a mother, out of both nature or out of desire.  
  
However, making a name for yourself _does_ come with its consequences. Becoming a renowned mountain bandit and having a bounty thrust upon your head was going to get you noticed by civilians and Marines in one way or another, and in this, she met none other than Monkey D. Garp-- fast enemies, they were, constantly at one another’s throats but neither strong enough to take the other down. In what could be considered a watered-down retribution for her crimes, Garp had given her a young boy to care for. She threw a fit in Garp’s face, the two having a screaming match as a young boy with narrowed eyes watched them in silence. In the end, Dadan had no option but to take the young boy in.

With one boy soon came another, and later, a third that had weaseled his way into their little family. It was far more dedication than Dadan had initially signed up for-- not like she’d ever signed up for it at all. Three loud and rowdy boys took up her space at all hours of the day until she’d finally drawn the wits about her to toss them out, telling them not to come home until dusk or there’d be no supper when they arrive. The three would just laugh and take to the woods, as though they could feel the tenderness in her tone; she knew, too, that there would always be three bowls awaiting them by nightfall. 

Though it was hard, these three boys had quickly become something of a family to her. She knew her two dark-haired boys like the backs of her hands; they may as well have been birds of the same feather, from appearances right down to the unfortunate names of their fathers. However, it was the new young blond that she could never seem to place; he fit between them like a piece of sewn fabric, and was the gateway to bringing all three of the young boys together. She just didn’t know a damned thing about him. On nights where she’d find herself alone with him at the dinner table, she’d try to ask where he’d come from, but his answers were as unchanging as they were unclear. The outskirts, the trash heap, the misfits-- but here he was her boys’ center, their friend, their brother. She’d ask who his parents were, and he’d give unclear answers-- to him, Dadan was “Mama”, and that was enough, but the look in his eyes told the stories of a lineage that even he himself was too young to understand. The answers he gave never matched up with the kind of person he was. 

She decided not to dwell on it. It was none of her business, anyways.

The day the fires had swept across the Grey Terminal, it had led to devastation. 

Never once had Dadan thought twice about the place, but her sons were nowhere to be found; she could only suspect that they’d found themselves in the crosshairs of the fire and smoke, lost in dead-end pathways paved by ash. She’d pulled two of her boys out by hardly the tails of their coats, but even then, they were inconsolable; Luffy’s tears bled through the nighttime air as harshly as Ace’s anger whipped at the unsturdy wooden walls.

The news of Sabo’s death seemed to destroy them both. The news even shook Dadan to her core; hearing the stories of the boy who called him “Mama” being shot with deadly precision, left alone at sea to drown or suffocate under the hulls of one of Marie Jois’ ships, if not burned to nothing by the sheer brute force of it all... it filled her with a rage she’d never felt before. It was a rage that consumed her whole. This boy’s one attempt at freedom, to leave a family he never considered his own, burned to the ground within an instant. She had not the words nor the vulnerability to express her inner thoughts; however, there are no words that can truly describe a mother’s grief. She found herself trying to remember his face, his scruffy hair, his idealist attitude, all while tracing the Sabo-shaped hole that was left in her heart.

Dadan still ensured her boys came home to three bowls that night. She couldn’t bring herself to do any less.

* * *

Her boys were more distant from her than they were before their brother’s passing. She couldn’t blame them for that.

The way grief damaged the young was different than how it did the elderly; where they could patch the cracks and fill in empty spaces left by the passing of another, those inexperienced with something so terrible needed longer to recover. She left her sons to their own devices as they made trips out into the woods, disappearing into leaves and stumbling over twisted roots as though it was mapped in the depths of their subconscious. She had no worries that they’d always come home safe and sound, and even if one came later than the other, the tell-tale swishing of the wooden door on its frame was enough to ease her nerves.

It only worried her, though, when she heard it almost fly from its hinges, the doorknob slamming a dent into the weather-worn walls. She looked up from the table where she was counting day’s money and caught Ace’s eye.

She’d never seen such evident terror in him before. The words that Luffy was missing sent a chill down her spine.

Dadan dropped her things immediately, coins clattering against the wood, and pushed herself out the door, Ace following close behind her. They split in two different directions, Ace going west and Dadan remaining south-- these woods, like home to them, were mazes to her. She could hardly tell if she’d been running in circles, if she’d gotten herself lost, or if she was going anywhere of substance. She only knew her throat was sore from screaming Luffy’s name, begging for his return. The woods only became stranger to her the deeper in she traveled, and it terrified her to think of how unknown these woods must’ve been for her boys-- that is, if Luffy was even lost at all. Perhaps he’d been taken. Perhaps he’d been--

Crying.

She could hear Luffy crying.

Her glance darted around the trees, looking frantically for the cause of the sound. In all the teal-black haze of the fog-masked trees in the late hours before sunset, she caught a glimpse of straw in what little sunlight peppered in; that goddamned straw hat. She swore that hat would be the death of that boy someday, but now she couldn’t be happier to see it.

Dadan called his name once more, earning Luffy’s wide-eyed stare as he turned around from where he sat. He screamed for his mama, standing up to meet her, covered in dirt and leaves. She barrelled towards him and almost tripped as she fell to her knees, putting her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes burned and threatened tears as she shook him in her hold.

“Do you have any idea how worried you’ve made us?! You can’t keep wandering off like this! Luffy, you’re so fuckin’ reckless, you can’t just go off wherever you feel like! I can’t lose you, dammit, I can’t lose another son!”

Luffy just looked up at her. Big, hot crocodile tears fell from his eyes as he sniffled uncontrollably. He barely met her gaze. “I know.”

Anger and stress washed away, leaving only the damp sands of relief and the mist of a beating heartbeat in her ears. Dadan pulled Luffy tightly into her arms, one arm strong around his midsection and the other clasping the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair. Luffy held onto her like if he were to let go, she’d vanish, too-- the straw hat in his hands rested uncomfortably on her back. She stood, struggling to bring herself to her feet, before she carried two rattling bodies home in the oncoming darkness.

* * *

It had been many moons since Dadan’s sons were young. 

It passed in both the blink of an eye and as slowly as the growth of a willow tree; strong and sturdy, and with visible change. She’d watched Luffy, a reckless rubber boy with a thirst for adventure, grow into an older reckless rubber boy with thirst for adventure and a newfound ridiculous strength. Ace, her loud and brash eldest, had changed significantly-- he was well-mannered and always smiling, despite the distanced look that would occasionally cloud his eyes in the way that only damaged souls could experience.

At 17, her sons swore to go out to sea. Regardless of who they’d become, she’d still support them. That was her promise.

Seeing Ace in the doorway of their cabin, newly 17 with a hat clumsily adorned over his head, it all suddenly felt too real. The idea of losing her son was nothing now, but it still filled her chest with an empty feeling-- the house would be quieter without him here. She’d miss his presence, the missing bottles of sake, the only entertainer for someone as unique as Luffy. Ace watched her as though he was trying to remember everything about her, right down to her shoes.

“I’ll miss you, boy,” Dadan stated as she stood from her seat at the table. The chain on her pocket rattled as she made her way over to meet him. Ace only chuckled, crossing his arms.

“I doubt you will. You always said you liked it better when it was quieter.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dadan sighed. Ace pushed off the doorway and pulled her into his arms, squeezing her into a bear hug that only he could give. Dadan pat his back warmly once, twice. “It was just to give you a big head. You’ll need it out there.”

The laugh Ace gave was hearty-- it was one his whole body fell into, his stomach bending over as he leaned into it. Dadan chuckled as well. His happiness was contagious. That was the thing about those with the Will of D. They were charming.

“You’d better come back to me in one piece, alright? I don’t want to see anything poor in the news about you.”

“I won’t die that easily,” Ace assured. “I have a goal I’m going to fill.”

He stepped outside the home, his shoes hitting the rock landing outside; it was an audible signal of his sign of departure, marking his intentions clearly in the sand. The setting sun ripped against one of the blue embellishments on his cap, reflecting off a smile that was mirrored on his face.

Luffy appeared from across the path, suddenly, begging his brother to show him his ship and to let him see Ace off; he was caught off guard, the sun glinting off the frown before being obscured from the sun altogether as he turned attention away from her. He gave Dadan a final wave before rushing off down the hill with his brother, who dragged him merrily with an extended arm.

Words went unspoken, but Dadan knew what they said.

“I love you, too, Ace,” she wishes, as he faded into the woods.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to make a sort of think-piece that encapsulates Dadan's relationship with motherhood. Dadan was by no means a perfect mother, but to the ASL brothers, that's really what she was. I wanted to explore her relationship with each brother and, more specifically, I wanted to focus on different stages of a mother's loss: grief, getting lost, and the empty nest. I hope I did justice to this fic and to her because the moment this concept came to mind I absolutely _knew _I had to put it into action. If you liked this, please consider following me on my Twitter: @hanahana_no__mi._  
>  Thank you so much for reading! Lots of love!_


End file.
